The Prince of Egypt (1998)

A+
SDG

A film that has one standout scene of real
artistic significance — one sequence that is truly unique in the
annals of filmmaking — is something special. The Prince of
Egypt has two.

The first is Moses’ stunning hieroglyph-vision
of his own escape as an infant from Pharaoh’s slaughter of
innocents, a scene that appears to him as living wall-paintings
that he somehow knows really exist somewhere in the palace.

This
visionary sequence stands with a handful of the greatest scenes
in animation film history (others would include Snow White’s
flight in the enchanted forest; the mushrooms dancing to
Tchaikovsky in Fantasia; Dumbo’s spectacular "Pink
Elephants on Parade" number; the "Bella Notte" spaghetti kiss in
Lady and the Tramp; and the ballroom sequence in Beauty
and the Beast).

And second, the climactic parting of the Red
Sea — and its subsequent thundering collapse, and that awful
moment of stillness with spray hissing on the surface — is surely
one of the all-time greatest sequences in the history of film,
period. As Roger Ebert wrote, if Cecil B. DeMille could have seen
this, he would have gone back to the drawing board.

Caveat Spectator

American animation is starting to come of age, to the point
where it is becoming a viable medium for sophisticated, mature
storytelling as well as children’s entertainment. (In some
countries, such as Japan, there is no special association between
animation and children.) The Prince of Egypt, with its
complex characters and mature themes — notably the painful
relationship between Moses (Val Kilmer) and Pharaoh Ramses (Ralph
Fiennes) — was a major milestone in this development. (The trend
continued with DreamWorks’ irreverent follow-up The Road to El
Dorado, as well as the South Park film, Fox’s
Titan: A.E., and the American release of Princess
Mononoke. The upshot of all this is that, for better or for
worse — and it will be some of both — American parents must learn
that "animated" is no longer synonymous with "G-rated.") The
Prince of Egypt was still done with kids in mind, of course,
and it has its childish slapstick moments, but it’s a big step
beyond the Disney films or even something like The Iron Giant.

And it is a great work of art. Witness the astonishing
animation of scale at work in capturing the towering monuments of
Egypt, or the host of departing Hebrews: few if any traditional
animated films have ever captured the sheer sense of size
in this film. Watch the subtle storytelling in an early scene as
the infant Moses, caught up in the Queen’s arms, eclipses the
toddler Ramses in her line of vision, leaving him standing there
with outstretched arms; foreshadowing the rivalry and ultimately
the enmity between the heir to the throne and his Hebrew foster
brother. Notice the small details in those quiet numinous
moments: the pebbles rolling back at Moses’ feet at the burning
bush; the halo of clear water around his ankles as the Nile turns
to blood; the horror of an Egyptian servant as the surface of the
water bubbles and the first frogs begin to flop out of the river
onto the palace stairs; an extinguished candle flame or an
offscreen sound of a jar crashing as the destroying angel swirls
in and out among the Egyptians.

Then there are the songs by Stephen Schwartz and Hans Zimmer.
"When You Believe" got all the awards; but "Deliver Us" is more
urgent and heartfelt, and Moses’ "All I Ever Wanted" is
hauntingly revisited in the "Plagues" sequence as a duet between
Moses and Ramses, with chorus chanting ominously "I send the
swarm, I send the horde — thus saith the Lord" as Moses’ and
Ramses’ lines overlap. Note, too, the way these songs are
deployed in this film: Instead of following the typical Disney
musical model in which characters openly break into song, The
Prince of Egypt more often than not plays these songs over a
character’s contemplation, giving musical voice to his inner
thoughts or state of mind without turning it into a show-stopper
("Playing with the Big Boys" is the cartoony exception).

Artistically, the considerable influence of Steven Spielberg
has made itself felt here. Moses’ basket, in the opening scene,
is threatened by several dangers, including a crocodile that
swims up from the depths and opens its jaws — only to be stopped
at the last minute by huge hippopotami, the way that the
velociraptor attack at the end of Jurassic Park was halted
by the arrival of the T-rex (Spielberg’s friend George Lucas also
adopted this conceit in The Phantom Menace). In the next
scene, a chariot race between Moses and Ramses ends with the
Sphinx’s broken nose crashing inexorably through layer after
layer of scaffolding, chasing Moses and Ramses every step of the
way, just like the car-in-the-tree scene in Jurassic Park.
Most notable of all, of course, is the ethereal, wispy depiction
of the heavenly destroyer in the Passover-night scene — a vision
straight out of the famous climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

But The Prince of Egypt is not just a work of art, it
is also a great testament to faith. DreamWorks was acutely aware
that they were taking on a story sacred to Christians, Jews, and
Muslims; and great pains (such as consulting with literally
hundreds of clerical figures) were taken to ensure that the
result was appropriate and reverent.

The triumphant result is a story that Christians can
wholeheartedly applaud: a magnificent retelling of the Exodus
story that gives full credit to the saving works of God, from the
dramatic call of Moses at the burning bush, to the powerful
plague montage, to the terrible Passover night, to the grand
finale at the Red Sea — the last of which includes a sequence in
which the pillar of fire, like the finger of God, draws a blazing
line in the sand between the Hebrews and the Egyptians,
zig-zagging to intercept all the charioteers, all to allow the
Hebrews to get under way crossing the Red Sea. (Only the climax
of the scene in which Moses’ staff becomes a serpent is strangely
undermined: Moses’ serpent is seen in shadow devouring the
magicians’ serpents, but this moment is lost amid the big finish
to "Playing with the Big Boys." The fact that the magicians are
called "Hotep" and "Hoy," rather than Jannes and Jambres as
attested by rabbinic tradition as well as New Testament
authority, is another small point that could have been
improved.)

Naturally, creative liberties have been taken, sometimes
inventing where scripture is silent, other times changing or
nuancing the biblical account. For example, the scene in which
Moses kills an Egyptian and buries him in secret, only to learn
the next day that his crime is known, has quite reasonably been
both softened and condensed to a depiction of an accidental death
that was widely witnessed.

Some changes have been influenced by a desire to emphasize
positive female role models: the roles of Miriam (Sandra Bullock)
and Tzipporah (Michelle Pfeiffer) have been heightened, even
exaggerated, so that for example Moses is accompanied into
Pharaoh’s presence by Tzipporah rather than Aaron (Jeff
Goldblum), who is here depicted as a rather histrionic fellow who
serves largely as a foil to make faithful, feisty Miriam look
better. It is Miriam who tells Moses who he really is and goads
and encourages him every step of the way. On the far shores of
the Red Sea, Moses embraces Miriam and says simply, "Thank you" — as if to say, "I couldn’t have done it if you hadn’t believed in
me." This feminist slant can be slightly annoying, but it isn’t
generally too bad.

Theologically speaking, the film’s best and most exciting
device is the clear emotional connection between Pharaoh’s
slaughter of innocents and the Passover-night slaughter of the
Egyptian firstborn. Nine plagues into the story, standing
underneath the hieroglyphic images from Moses’ dream of the
slaughter of the Hebrew babies, Ramses utters fateful words to
Moses: "My father had the right idea about how to deal with your
people, and it’s time I finished the job. And there shall be a
great cry in Egypt such as has never been before and will never
be again." That last sentence, unbeknowst to Ramses (and perhaps
most viewers), is precisely the same phrase with which God
himself described the tenth plague in the book of Exodus. Nothing
the filmmakers could possibly have done could have made the moral
logic of God taking the lives of the Egyptian firstborn more
accessible to modern American audiences.

Another theological point: for Christians, the story of the
Exodus foreshadows our own redemption from slavery to sin by
Christ our Passover; and, in this connection, it’s interesting
that Moses himself is not depicted as a grey-haired old man (he
was 80 at the time of of the Exodus), but as a rather Christ-like
young man with a dark beard who, like Jesus weeping over the sins
of Jerusalem, is saddened rather than angered by Ramses’ hardness
of heart.

This ties in, of course, with what is dramatically the film’s
most important conceit: the speculative suggestion that Moses
never knew his origins while growing up, and only learned about
the slaughter of the innocents and his own deliverance as an
adult. In part because of this, Moses is shown having a close
brotherly relationship with Ramses that becomes the source of
great dramatic tension; and Ramses himself, far from being a
cartoon villain, is a genuinely tragic and moving figure: haunted
by his father’s legacy, unwilling to be "the weak link" that
compromises the dynasty, driven by his own fears to the very
scenario he most dreaded.

This film is destined to change the way that generations of
children learn one of the most important stories of salvation
history. Young people who might otherwise have little or no idea
who Moses was will now have a working knowledge of the Exodus
story (although they won’t here learn much about Moses the
lawgiver, since the true climax of this film is the Red Sea and
there’s only a brief glimpse of Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai
with the Ten Commandments); and parents who take an active
interest in passing on their faith have an important tool in this
film — one that they themselves will enjoy watching again and
again. The Prince of Egypt is a film Christian movie
watchers should treasure: a genuinely great work of art that is
also an inspiring and theologically significant narrative.

Note: DreamWorks followed The Prince
of Egypt with Joseph:
King of Dreams, a direct-to-DVD/VHS animated retelling of
the story of the patriarch Joseph and his brothers. While not in
the same class as its predecessor, Joseph: King of Dreams
is a worthwhile children’s movie that will find a warm reception
in many Christian and Jewish households.